1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to techniques for rapid rehydration of legumes and the like and, more particularly, is concerned with a legume rehydration control apparatus and method using buoyancy restraint and detection for achieving accelerated legume rehydration without loss of quality.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is well-known that the seeds of legumes, for the sake of brevity hereinafter referred to as legumes, are valuable foods and are widely used for such purpose. The legumes are especially valuable for their high content of protein. However, to increase their digestibility and to improved their taste, the legumes are subjected to a process in which they are first dried and then rehydrated to restore moisture to make them soft and tender, as well as to cook them to remove unpleasant raw tastes.
Many different processes of drying and rehydrating legumes have been used over the years. With respect to the drying part of processing legumes, for many years a common practice has been to dry legumes naturally in the field. Other drying techniques utilized have involved using forced air to dry legumes in order to preserve the product from rot, molds, aflatoxins and the like.
However, the main problem has arisen with respect to the rehydrating part of processing legumes. The objective has been to find a technique of rehydrating the dried legumes in a fast, effective way while preserving product quality. Representative examples of approaches to rehydration found in the prior patent art are the ones disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. to Morris (2,584,150), Keely (3,719,502), Hitze et al (3,867,553), Wagner et al (3,876,807), Bevan et al (4,088,790), Baxley (4,113,889), Fritze (4,233,322), Sakakibara et al (4,348,421), Luchetti (4,543,878), Turner (4,816,270), Bakker et al (4,900,578) and Zanichelli (4,940,590).
Some techniques used heretofore are able to preserve product quality, but do not achieve rapid rehydration. Still other techniques rely on preset time limits with mechanical movement (that may affect product quality) between hot and cool liquids to achieve rapid rehydration of the product.
Consequently, a need still exists for an effective technique to rehydrate dried legumes rapidly and still preserve quality.